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Shark Latches Onto Florida Swimmer And Won’t Let Go

Screenshot: ShaneGrosse (Getty)

A man recently swimming off the coast of Florida is thankful to be alive after being attacked by a shark the size of a football.

Known as the ‘nurse shark,’ Ervin Maccarty found out first hand the creature is anything but a caregiver.

Maccarty was with his friends in Marathon, Fl., one of the Florida Keys, when he went in the water to retrieve a grouper he had just shot with a spear. While trying to get the grouper out of a hole, a nurse shark came out of another hole, sinking its teeth into him, not letting go.

It’s obvious his friend laughing in the background is only concerned about one thing: “He didn’t get your penis did he, Erv??!!”

Who new Jaws could be so tiny?

Here’s Maccarty’s account starting from when he got in the water to go retrieve the grouper about 10 feet down in the water.

“As soon as I get down there, the shark came out of another hole and bit me. I struggled getting back to the boat. It knocked the breath out of me, so I had to get up for air, but I felt the shark biting and trying to tear me open.

It wouldn’t let go, so I had to hold it tight with both hands so it wouldn’t rip me open and I had to get up for air with the shark pulling me down.

I thought I would drown. I got up and saw the boat had floated away and everyone yelling that the shark had bit me. No one knew it was still on me. I had to get to the boat with no hands to swim with. It was a struggle and wore me out.”

You still have to appreciate Maccarty’s friend seconds after the shark was released: “Poor little guy.”